Date Approved

Embargo Period

Document Type

Degree Name

Department

College

First Advisor

Second Advisor

Galbiati, Jacqueline

Third Advisor

Lown, Maris

Subject(s)

Nursing students--Psychology; National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses

Disciplines

Educational Psychology

Abstract

Being wrong is a common phenomenon for students in academic environments; however this phenomenon has yet to be described from the student perspective. The purpose of this phenomenologic inquiry is to describe the realization of academic wrongness (RAW) as experienced by senior level nursing students during a high stakes testing period. Observations, class documents, communications, and semi-structured interviews were collected to gain a full description for the realization of academic wrongness within context and as this phenomenon unfolded for the students. The data were analyzed using Moustakas (1994) 7 step phenomenological process. Fourteen invariant constituents emerged during data analysis which when combined created three themes: stories to tell, powerlessness, and anger. These themes suggested interdependence of perceived cognition, self-beliefs, and social structure of the educational environment with respect to RAW. The students used stories to describe their experiences with the realization of academic wrongness which explained, minimized, and justified their actions and interactions that led to RAW. They expressed feeling powerless and angry during RAW, feelings which did not support students during review and remediation activities. Although students stated the need for content review and remediation, the impact of RAW on these students limited behaviors consistent with engagement in review and remediation activities.